Origins of the Reaper
by hgfirewall
Summary: Thanatos has never been the Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper is his one and only demigod child and this is that child's origin story.


**I've never written one of these before, so tips and criticism will be greatly appreciated. Ever since Thanatos was introduced in SoN, I have been obsessed with what his demigod children would be like. I imagine their powers would be like the Anubis powers in the Kane Chronicles, but I digress. This will not explore the powers much, because all I really wanted to do with this was create a character in the PJO universe with a bit of an edge. Also I didn't know what the rating on this should be so if I need to have it changed just let me know.**

* * *

Origins of the Reaper

No one ever worshiped Death until a blade was at their throat and only then would they grovel and beg for him to be gentle. Mortals were weeds and he the gardener. Until the dark angel noticed something he'd never seen before, a beautiful flower, a mortal more beautiful than if she had been blessed by Aphrodite herself. Her name was Elpis. He courted Elpis but his touch left her barren. Demeter took pity on the young lovers and grew the seed inside Elpis.

It was too late though, for Thanatos had given up hope. He returned to his duties and forgot about Elpis and would again only ever see weeds; Though Elpis would not forget Thanatos because as her son grew he looked more and more like his father. The child lived a happy life until his demigod powers began to rise. As a child of Thanatos, Thanméros radiated death.

When rumor spread of the boy cursed by the gods to carry plague and famine were ever he went, Thanméros and Elpis fled into the wilderness. There his mother succumbed to his powers and when he carried her body back to the village for aid in her burial he was attacked. The villagers accused him of matricide and beat him. In his fear, he unleashed his full power and as he fell into unconsciousness witnessed a wasteland. The plants lay blackened, the huts collapsed, and the people reduced to ash.

As he grew into adulthood he left a path of unmeant devastation wherever he tread and was forced to a life of solitude as village after village barred his way. The Fates tolerated his desolation until he was challenged by Iroída, daughter of Athena and future mother of a great hero. She had been told of a great monster devastating the countryside that no blade could stop and no man could withstand. She encountered a man morosed by the fact that he could not be killed. He warned her that if she got too close she would be killed by his presence; a warning she heeded by the path of death in his wake. Iroída had come there to kill a monster, but instead found a friend in a wayward and powerful demigod.

Thanméros was tired of living and seeing everything around him die. He begged Iroída, his first friend since the death of his mother, to kill him and end his misery. Being a daughter of Athena, she truly believed she could find an answer to this problem. She tried everything from shooting him with arrows to hanging him, but it was all to no avail as whatever entered his bubble withered away. Iroída had never encountered a problem she could not conquer and in her frustration she tripped into Thanméros' mire.

This was the final straw for the Fates. Every work and tapestry that Thanméros had unraveled before now had been of little importance until he killed Iroída. Iroída was meant to give birth to one of the greatest Greek heroes to ever live, the man, a son of Zeus, meant to guard Thermopylae's secret pass and hold back the Persian's march and allow the Battle of 300 to be won. The Fates called for his death but when Thanatos learned of whom his target was he refused. The Fates informed Zeus of the great honor stolen from him and he struck Thanméros down, but still Thanatos refused to take the boy's soul.

Thanméros' life and death earned him an ally in Akhlys, the primordial god of misery. She crafted his spirit into a shade that would never die. As it was only a mere shadow of what it had once been its powers were greatly decreased.

Angry at being defied, Zeus banned Thanatos from every seeing his son again and from fathering another child. With this Zeus was content as he did not wish to fight with Akhlys and her mother, Nyx. The Fates were not happy though. They bound the shade to Thanatos as his eternal servant. Thus forcing Thanatos to remember for eternity his insolence and the son he can never have, and stealing the chance at a new life that Akhyls had gifted to the shade. The Fates furthered the torment by fating the shade and those close to it to die brutally on the day of Iroída's death for eternity. While the shade will be reborn as a new person, those close to it will not, so the shade must keep the solitude it held in its first life to protect others from the Fates' wrath.


End file.
